Cigarette packeting machine



Dec. 8, 1970 OSTERDAHL 3,545,172

CIGARETTE PACKETING MACHINE Filed Oct. 31, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet l Flg 11970 R. OSTERDAHL CIGARETTE PACKETING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet! Filed Oct.31, 1967 United States Patent 3,545,172 CIGARETTE PACKETING MACHINERagnar lsterdahl, Stockholm, Sweden, assignor to Arenco Aktiebolag,Stockholm-Vallingby, Sweden Filed Oct. 31, 1967, Ser. No. 679,425 Claimspriority, application Sweden, Nov. 11, 1966, 15,504/ 66 Int. Cl. B65]:5/02, 19/24 US. Cl. 53-192 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Acigarette packeting machine comprising a first endless conveying meansprovided with cigarette portion holders, a second endless conveyingmeans provided with container forming mandrels, means for formingcontainer on said mandrels and a third endless conveying means providedwith means for receiving filled containers, said conveying means beingdriven continuously and having a common conveying path in which saidcigarette portion holders, said mandrels and said container receivingmeans travel positioned in register with each other and in cooperationwith rams adapted to push cigarette portions from said holders throughsaid mandrels and, together with said containers, into said containerreceiving means.

The present invention is concerned with a cigarette packeting machineincluding means for dispensing cigarette portions from a cigarette storeto a number of cigarette portion holders moving in a closed path; asecond closed path lying adjacent said first path and provided withcontainer forming mandrels and means for forming containers, open at oneend, on the mandrels and a third path situated adjacent said secondpath.

A machine of this kind is described in detail in the Swedish patentspecification 75,309. The machine presents an indexing wheel providedwith container forming mandrels and folding arrangements. A portion ofcigarettes is partially moved by means of a ram in a transfer stationfrom a second indexing wheel, engaging said first wheel and havingcigarette portion holders, into a container forming mandrel having acompleted container located thereon, the said ram then being withdrawnto be reengaged with the cigarette portion during subsequent advances ofthe wheel presenting container forming mandrels and in a last stationforce out the cigarette portion together with the container onto adischarge path provided with folding means for closing the container. Anapparatus of this type is capable of producing approximately 150cigarette packages per minute. The capacity of the apparatus is limiteddue to the intermittent operation thereof and the accompanyingdifliculties of feeding the cigarette portions into the holders and intothe container forming mandrels during the intervals between the variousindexing movements.

The object of the present invention is to provide a cigarette packagingmachine having a substantially increased capacity. This object isrealized according to the invention in that the cigarette portionholders are attached on a continuously driven conveyor which extendsparallel with a portion of the path of the container forming mandrels,which path is also continuously driven, and connected mechanically withsaid path so that a filled cigarette portion holder and a containerforming mandrel supporting a finished container are in register with oneanother during the passage of the common path portion, along which a camcurve attached in the frame extends and is arranged to move the rambelonging to the mandrel through the cigarette portion holder and thecontainer forming mandrel for discharging the cigarette package onto thesaid path provided with receiving means.

The essential characteristic of the present invention is that thecigarette portion holders have been arranged on a continuously operatedconveyor. By using such conveyor a portion of the path common to thecigarette portion holders and the container forming mandrels and of suchlength can be obtained that the acceleration forces on the reciprocatingrams is held within permitted limits, even at very high speeds of thetwo paths. If, as is the case in the above described known machine, thecontainer forming mandrels are arranged on a drum it may be necessary athigh rotary speeds of the drum to increase its diameter, which from thepoint of view of space can be difiicult in certain instances. Thus, alsothe container forming mandrels may alternatively be disposed on a short,endless conveyor.

No restriction of the capacity of the machine owing to diificulties offeeding the cigarette portion holders arise in the apparatus accordingto the invention. Due to the fact that the cigarette portion holders arearranged on a conveyor a number of separate reciprocatingly movablearrangements for simultaneously discharging the cigarette portions toindividual cigarette portion holders can, without difiiculty, bearranged in the direction of movement of the cigarette portion holders.

The invention will be more closely described in the following withreference to the accompanying drawings which show an embodiment of amachine according to the invention, wherein FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic endview of the machine and FIG. 2 is a section along the line II-II in FIG.1.

The shown machine has a machine frame 1 in which chain wheels 3, 4, 5, 6of an endless chain conveyor 2 are mounted. The conveyor 2 is driven bythe chain wheel 6 which is securely attached to a drum 7 rotatablymounted on a shaft 8 attached to the frame. The drum 7 is driven by adrive shaft 9 provided with a pinion 10 engaging with a spur gear 11mounted on the drum 7. The conveyor 2 has two chains 12, 13 'betweenwhich transversely open cigarette portion holders 14 are mounted. Theholders 14 are of a known type, and are provided on the bottom surfacethereof with a lever 15 by means of which the sides and top portion ofthe holders 14 can be displaced outwards, against the action of springmeans (not shown).

Cigarette portions, composed of twenty cigarettes 16, are introducedinto the holders 14 by means of two identical feeding arrangements 17,18 each of which feed said portions to the holders 14 at the same time.Each feeding arrangement is of a known type and presents channelslocated between pivotally mounted plates 19; in which channels sevenstacks of cigarettes are discharged from a storage means (not shown) topockets 20 in front of fingers on an ejecting ram 21. The ram 21 and thepockets 20 are arranged on a plate 22 which is pivotally mounted on ashaft 23 on a slide 24 slidably mounted in the frame by means of a ballbearing 25. The slide 24 is driven by means of a reciprocating arm 26synchronized with the drive of the chain conveyor 2. The ram 21 ismovable transversely of the slide 24 by means of an arm 27 actuatedsynchronously with the arm 26.

When the pockets 20 are filled with three rows of cigarettes, the lowerends of the tWo outer plates 19 are urged inwardly somewhat by means ofdevices (not shown) so that the lower cigarettes in the passages areclamped, whereafter the pockets 20 are lowered somewhat by means of aroller 28, actuated by a cam 29. The slide 24 is then displaced in thedirection of movement of the holders 14, simultaneously as twentycigarettes (one cigarette in the centre row being retained in the pocketin a known manner by means of a shoulder not shown) are pushed by thefingers of the ram 21 into a holder 14 situated opposite the pockets,the said holder being held in an extended state by means of anassociation lever 15, which is actuated by a stationary curve 30. Theram 21 is then withdrawn and the slide 24 returns to the originalstarting position in preparation for feeding a subsequent holder,omitting that holder immediately following the holder just filled andwhich has already been filled by the feeding arrangement 18 arranged atprevious station in the conveying path. The cigarettes are thencompacted in the holders 14 and convayed to the drum 7. The drum 7 isprovided with container forming mandrels 31 mounted circumferentiallythereon and having the same pitch as the holders 14. The drum 7 and thechain conveyor 2 are so synchronized that a holder 14 and a mandrel 31in the position marked A are adjusted in register with one another andretain this mutual position until reaching the position marked B. When amandrel 31 arrives at position A it has been provided in a manner knownper se with a container 32 formed of a first paper web 33 for an innerwrapper, which is wrapped on the mandrel 31 by means of a windingarrangement 34 and stationary and co-rotating folding means 35 and aglueing arrangement 36, and a second paper web 37 for an outer wrapperor pouch which by means of a further winding arrangement 38 andstationary and co-rotating folding means 39 and a glueing means iswrapped on the inner wrapper. The working method for a suitable type ofarrangements for forming a container is described in detail in theSwedish patent specification 75,309.-

Slidably arranged around the outer circumference of the drum 7 areejecting rams 40, disposed in register with each container formingmandrel 31. Each ram 40 has a rack 41 which engages a gearwheel 42rotatably mounted on the drum and with which a second, smaller gearwheel 43 is fastened, thesaid gear wheel 43 being in engagement withgears on a rack 44 slidably mounted on the drum 7 and parallel to theram 40. The rack 44'is provided with a cam ;followerroller 45 whichmoves in a groove 46 stationarily'arranged in the frame. Gear wheels 42,43 are so adapted that displacement of the rack 44 causes the ram '40tomove through a distance three times that moved by'said rackrThe groove46 is so designed that the ram 40, during the folding operations, islocated with its outer end 58 at thebottorn of associating containerforming mandrel 31 to serve as a support at the bottom of the containerduring the folding operation. Before the sleeve 31 reaches the positionA in FIG. 1 the ram 40 is retracted to be projected out against the endsof the cigarettes in associating cigarette holder 14 immediately afterpassing said point-A, the lever 15 of the holder '14 being actuatedsimultaneously by a curve (not shown) to reduce'the pressure of theholder 14 on the cigarettes during thesubsequent ejection of thecigaretteby means of the ram 40-into an associating mandrel 31. Thecigarettes strike the bottom of the container in the'mandrel 31and uponcontinued movement of the ram 40 the cigarette portion together with thecontainer is pushed'into a receiving member 47 situated opposite themandre131; said member 47 being mounted on a continuously driven endlesschain conveyor 48. The ram 40 is withdrawn before position B in FIG. 1is reached. The conveyor 48 is provided with a number of receivingmembers, positioned with the same pitch as the mandrels 31 and 'movesover chain wheels 49, 50 and 51. During its movement on the conveyor 48the package passes a folding station 52 for folding and closing the topflaps of the cigarette package, whereupon the finished package istransferred by a ram (not shown) to a suitable collecting path, forinstance the step-wise driven chain conveyor 53.

The longitudinal joints of the Cigarette containers are pressed togetherby an arm 54 pivotally mounted on the drum 7 at each mandrel 31 andprovided with a pressure bar 55 and a cam follower roller 56 whichcooperates with a cam curve 57 mounted securely on the shaft 8. When apackage containing cigarettes is to be displaced into one of thereceiving members 47 the roller 56 is actuated by the cam curve 57 sothat the bar 55 is lifted from the packet.

The machine shown in the drawing and described above is capable ofdeliverying 400 packages per minute without difiiculty.

The invention is not restricted to the shown embodiment but can bevaried arbitrarily within the scope of the following claims. Thecapacity of the machine can be increased still further by modifying thefolding arrangements and the driving mechanisms of the rams 40'. Aspreviously mentioned the drum 7 may also be changed for a short, endlessconveyor. In this way the capacity of the machine can be increasedconsiderably but at the same time the machine becomes more complicatedsince accurate guiding of the mandrels 31 is required during the foldingoperations.

What is claimed is:

1. A cigarette packeting machine comprising a machine frame, at leastone cigarettestorage means mounted in said frame, a first endlessconveying means, cigarette portion holders mounted on said endlessconveying means, means for ejecting cigarette portions from saidcigarette store to said cigarette portion holders, a second endlessconveying means positioned adjacent to said first conveying means,container forming mandrels mounted on said second conveying .means andadapted to.receive cigarette portions from said holders, means forforming containers, open at one end, on said mandrels, a third endlessconveying means positioned adjacent to said second conveying means,means attached to said third conveying means for receiving containersfrom said mandrels and for closing the ends of said containers, meansfor continuously driving each of said conveying means, each of saidconveying means having a common conveying path in which a portion ofeach of said conveying means are positioned in parallel with each otherand in which common conveying path said cigarette portion holders, saidmandrels and said container receiving means travel positioned inregister with each other and in cooperation with rams controlled by acam fixedly mounted in the machine frame, said rams being adapted topush said cigarette portions from said cigarette portion holders throughsaid mandrels into said container receiving means in one workingoperation.

2. A cigarette packeting machine according to claim 1, wherein saidfirst conveying means and said third conveying means comprise endlesschains supporting said cigarette portionholders and said containerreceiving means, respectively, and said second conveying means comprisesa driven, drum supporting said mandrels, and said rams, and chain wheelsalso supported, by said drum, said chains of said first and said thirdconveying means being driven by said wheels.

3. A cigarette packeting machine according to claim 2, wherein at leasttwo cigarette portion ejecting means are adapted to simultaneouslycooperate with each a cigarette portion holder.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,426,503 2/ 1969 Sherrill 53151X3,479,787 11/ 1969 Bardenhagen et a1. 53-192X THERON E. CONDON, PrimaryExaminer R. L. SPRUILL, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 53-236, 252

